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The National Weather Service in Indiana does their tests the same day and time every week, but stations are supposed to mix it up.

Weekly Tests
Weekly tests consist of transmitting the EAS digital header codes and end of message (EOM) codes, once each week. Weekly tests must be conducted by EAS participants on different days and at different times.

OK, while this does not address the frustrations showed by the original poster, it is a good time to provide some history of the days of TV when if you could get a clear signal you were happy, and if your lucky, in New York you received 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13, with a semi good signal from 8 in New Haven, CT. And cable was this great marvel that gave you clear signals on these channels, adding channels 3 and 30 from Hartford, get live weather on Channel 6 and PBS on channel 21. And during hockey and basketball season, you got the Rangers and Knicks from Madison Square Garden. A whopping 12 channels.

When i was growing up during the "Russians will attack any minute", "Ivan was ready to march down Main street", etc. days of the 1960s, these tests were conducted during commercial breaks and never during a program. Usually these occurred between programming or in the natural break in programming. They fell into the category of a Public Service Announce.

Though, the frequency of these ads was not very common at all. Also, it was not a crawl on the screen, the text below was spoken by an announcer.

"This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test."
Tone for about 30 seconds/
"This was a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. If this was an actual emergency, you would be instructed where to tune for additional information. This concludes the test of the Emergency Broadcast System".

So variants included what area a the stations served, station identification, frequency (radio) channel (TV) and call letters and sometimes addition information.

Older announcements included instructions to tune to a specific station indicated in the real emergency announcement and ignore the Civil Defense logos which were pretty much on all radios through the 1960s. What was then called WNHC TV (New Haven, CT) did this, while the New York City did not add this extra instruction.

By the way, I think the only time they even came close to activating the EBS was during the Cuban Missile Crises in 1962. Thus, EBS actually became comedian or war protest fodder.

Though, the frequency of these ads was not very common at all. Also, it was not a crawl on the screen, the text below was spoken by an announcer.

Click to expand...

The improvements to the messages allow the message to be encoded ... the "screech" at the beginning of the audible message contains the text of the message (good for relaying to other devices). This is very helpful on radio. The on screen text helps the hearing impaired.

Done right these messages don't need to be any more intrusive than they were in the days of old. The relay of the coordinated monthly test can be delayed enough to fit in the next commercial break. If all the commercials are sold something would need to be bumped.

I realize that this is important but the disruption of programming is what I don't like.
If they need to do it in the middle of the day, then maybe it could be timed for when a commercial is on.
Oh wait, the advertisers would complain about that.

By the way, I think the only time they even came close to activating the EBS was during the Cuban Missile Crises in 1962. Thus, EBS actually became comedian or war protest fodder.

Click to expand...

I remember at least one activation in the Boston area (I want to say around 1982) when a railroad car carrying toxic chemicals derailed and there was a potential for evacuation. And I think this system might have been used whenever a tornado was spotted as well. So while the EBS was generally known as an alert for if a nuclear war was about to break out it did have other uses.

The National Weather Service in Indiana does their tests the same day and time every week, but stations are supposed to mix it up.

Weekly Tests
Weekly tests consist of transmitting the EAS digital header codes and end of message (EOM) codes, once each week. Weekly tests must be conducted by EAS participants on different days and at different times.